A Head for Heights
by HecateA
Summary: Remus watches the aerial artists and prays that they won't fall, without realising that that's exactly what's happening to him. Oneshot. Circus!AU


**Author's Note: **I _love _aerial artists and so this was the next logical step for me.

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Warnings: **NA

* * *

**Stacked with: **MC4A; Shipping War

**Individual Challenge(s): **Gryffindor MC; Hufflepuff MC; In a Flash

**Word Count: **962

* * *

_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin (Technicolour Moon)

**List (Prompt): **Spring Big List (Carnival)

* * *

**A Head for Heights **

While the aerialists were rehearsing, Remus was fixing some seats in the main tent that had come loose.

"Hey," he called up to them. "You need to deploy the net, even if the crowd's not here. Safety's not just for show."

"We can't hear you from up here," one of them—he was rather sure that it was Dora—called back from the little platform that they crowded while they waited for their turn to jump into the air.

"That's a lie," he called back.

He waved his wand and the safety net stretched out underneath their midair playground. He also cast a cushioning spell, just in case they dropped the net the second he left.

* * *

Sometimes, when he was done with his work, he just sat in the back and watched the aerialists train. Then the first person launched themselves across the empty space, gripping the trapeze, and the rest of them fell into line. Pretty soon, they were all soaring and jumping and catching each other.

He'd been working at the Circus of the Phoenix as an administrator and general handyman for years now—decades, nearly. There was something quite wonderful about hiding just under the Muggles' noses and doing magic in front of their eyes and having them believe it. The Ministry hated them, but Remus loved his home and his family and his work and the way they all wrapped together.

He could stay at the Circus another thousand years, and the aerialists still amazed him every time. No matter how many times he saw Hestia jump and grab Kingsley's waiting hands, or watched Dora let go of the trapeze and swing across the space hanging from her foot… He found himself catching his breath at their sudden jumps and swings. His heartbeat quickened as he watched them swing higher and higher, and he gasped when he saw sudden movements that he knew perfectly well were part of their routines. Sometimes they swung so close his heart stilled, even if knew for a fact that their every move was perfectly timed and calculated.

Dora was currently hanging upside down from a trapeze, her legs spread in a split. The second that Kingsley grabbed one of her ankles, she let go of the trapeze and swung down, maintaining her stillness and grace. They swung together a few times and then Proudfoot threw her back in the air, and she caught the other trapeze bar. He thought that her hands must be both impossibly strong and impossibly soft to accomplish such feats.

* * *

Mad-Eye was sternly giving feedback, and reminding people to be constantly vigilant and focused while they were up there instead of "slacking off and prancing like little girls on the first of May."

"Alastor," Remus asked before the old man stomped off to somewhere else. "Albus told me you wanted me to sand down the trapeze platform up there…"

"About time the Ringmaster got to it," Mad-Eye grumbled. "Yes, please, go. Tonks will show you the problematic spaces, she's the one who got the worst of the splinters."

"You say that as if Poppy didn't fix me back up in a second," Tonks said, pulling her hair out of its ponytail and coming towards them, wearing bicycle shorts, a bright pink tank top, and the supple slippers the aerialists wore.

"That's enough out of Nymphadora," Mad-Eye said. "Don't think I didn't notice your creative decision to add a flip when you were going from Kingsley to Rufus."

"I have no idea what you could possibly be referring to, old man," Tonks said. She looked to Remus. "Shall we?"

He nodded and took a deep breath before following her up. He buckled himself into a harness to make the climb up, feeling self-conscious about his own clumsiness and nerve as Dora effortlessly shot up to the platform.

He forced himself not to look down which, of course, meant that he chose to do so at the halfway mark. God, they were high. He was buckled into the safety harness and the rigging that he had designed and engineered and was perfectly confident in, but that did not change just how impossibly high…

"You okay?" Dora called down.

"Yes," he said. "Sorry, I was… ah… inspecting."

"The ladder?"

"Ladders break too, you know."

She saw right through him, and made no effort to hide it when he reached the platform.

"You're afraid of heights, aren't you?" she said.

He blushed. "No."

"Everyone's afraid of something, it's fine," she said. "You should have told Mad-Eye. Someone else could have done it."

"No, no," he said. "It's my job."

With that he took a deep breath and kept climbing.

She tripped and he caught her.

* * *

"Sorry," she said. "Not as graceful on the ground."

"I'm happy to catch you, then," he said.

* * *

Dora was bent over in a bridge when he saw her next, stretching out in the circus ring.

"Don't forget the net," he said.

"I won't fall," she smiled back.

* * *

Remus looked at her with wide eyes when he realised what exactly she was going on about.

"Absolutely not," Remus said when she showed him the training harness they used for young trapezists.

"Think about it," she nudged.

He looked from her to the trapeze she was offering him. It wasn't very high compared to the usual heights at which Dora swore, he knew this rationally. Her hair was a dark, royal, luxurious red that matched the silk ribbon she'd been performing on recently.

"I promise you won't fall," Dora smiled, holding out her hand.

Remus reached out and took it, and he realised two things. First off, it was exactly as paradoxically sturdy and soft as he had expected.

Second: perhaps he already had.

"Okay," Remus said. "Okay, I'll go with you."


End file.
